The Dome of the Rock is a significant historical and architectural landmark in Jerusalem. Muslim tradition commemorates Solomon’s Temple and Mohamad’s Night Journey. Being so, Muslims view it as the third holiest site in Islam, after Mecca and Medina. However, it is built where the Jewish Temple used to be, a source of much interfaith tensions.

History of the Dome of the Rock

The Temple Mount has been a place of human worship from the dawn of history. The Jews erected two consecutive temples at the site, the first by King Solomon in the 10th century BC. In the first century AD the Romans burnt the Jewish Temple Mount and killed or enslaved the Jews of Jerusalem. Six centuries later the Muslims conqured Jerusalem and found its temple mount in ruins. They formed the Dome of the Rock to commemorate Solomon’s Temple, as well as Mohammad’s night Journey.

Architectural Analysis

An inscription inside the Dome of the Rock indicates it was completed in the 54^th year of Muhamad’s hijra, which correlates with 691 CE. It is, therefore, assumed that the Muslim Umayyad leader of Jerusalem, Abd-el Malek, constructed the Dome of the Rock. The structure’s design imitates octagonal and concentric Byzantine churches (i.e., Capernaum’s octagonal church) but supersedes them by size. The Dome is the same size as the dome over the tomb of Jesus at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It is even suggested that Christian artisans and architects built the structure.

The interior of the building still bears the original mosaic walls from its original construction in the 8th century. Once, mosaic walls also decorated its exterior, but in the 16th Century, the Ottomans replaced them with blue tiles and marble slabs. The dome was originally covered by lead sheets. In the 1960s, it was replaced with aluminum-bronze plates covered with gold leaf. In 1998, it was refurbished again with gold-plated Aluminum.

Touring the Dome of the Rock

Since 2000 AD, entry to the Dome of the Rock has been forbidden for non-Muslims. Nevertheless, it is still possible to appreciate the size and grandeur of this building from the outside.

A tour of the Temple Mount can be combined with a guided day tour of Jerusalem.